Acute care

Innovations

Patients receive a notepad with sample questions and informational prompts intended to facilitate communication with physicians, leading to more notetaking by patients and a greater likelihood of having their questions answered by physicians.

Project BOOST (Better Outcomes by Optimizing Safe Transitions) provides hospitals a comprehensive set of interventions to improve the care transition process after discharge, leading to a significant reduction in readmissions.

A safety net hospital employs a software application that uses electronic health record data and predictive modeling to identify and allocate scarce resources to high-risk patients, leading to fewer readmissions and lower costs.

A statewide health information exchange provides health plans and accountable care organizations with daily alerts on patients visiting the emergency department or being admitted to an inpatient facility, allowing them to take steps to curb use of these high-cost venues and replace them with lower-cost primary care visits.

A multifaceted program featuring education and feedback, ultraviolet room disinfection devices, and a dedicated housekeeping team significantly improved the thoroughness of room cleanings and reduced the percentage of rooms housing patients with Clostridium difficile infections that tested positive for the pathogen at patient discharge.

A children's hospital uses an enterprise data warehouse to assist multidisciplinary teams in identifying and addressing opportunities to improve quality, leading to better adherence to evidence-based guidelines, less unnecessary care, and significant cost savings.

A city health department encourages public and private maternity hospitals to voluntarily adopt various policies to support new mothers who choose to breastfeed exclusively. The program has attracted many participating hospitals, won broad support within the medical community, and increased the proportion of new mothers who breastfeed exclusively during their hospital stay.

A partnership between a hospital and retail pharmacy company provides inhospital and postdischarge support to patients at high risk of readmission, leading to fewer readmissions and high levels of patient satisfaction.